


An Unexpected Adoption

by CountDorku



Series: Burning Bright [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adopted Children, F/F, Light Angst, Past Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:48:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26220673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CountDorku/pseuds/CountDorku
Summary: One night, Adora finds an unexpected presence in the nursery.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: Burning Bright [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1917037
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	An Unexpected Adoption

Adora’s eyes shot open as an unfamiliar noise split the night. Not crying, that was honestly a pretty common nocturnal experience with two baby daughters around, but this was a different voice, and it was coming from their nursery.

She shot out of bed like a crossbow bolt, a motion that combined a childhood of being trained for rapid response, months of war against both forms of the Horde, several months as a parent, and a lifetime of anxiety into a sudden surge.

“Grmph,” said Glimmer, and rolled over. “Your turn.”

Adora dashed across the corridor into the nursery, instinctively turning on the light as she passed the switch. She looked into the crib-

Stellara glared back at her, clearly upset at the nocturnal intrusions. Lunata, who’d apparently picked up Glimmer’s heavy sleeper gene, didn’t seem to have noticed.

That was the kids safe, at least. She turned to the source of the noise.

There was a basket sitting on the bench, a piece of paper sticking out the side. The crying was coming from there. Adora peeked into it.

A baby magicat (magikitten?) was lying there, bundled up in blankets. She had orange fur, much more vivid than Catra’s, but the blue and yellow eyes she looked at Adora with were instantly familiar.

Well, that confirmed a lot of Adora’s suspicions. Honestly, who else would be able to break into Brightmoon _carrying a baby in a basket_ and not get caught?

The kitten had stopped crying when Adora looked into her basket. Apparently the attention was enough; yeah, this kid was related to Catra, all right.

Adora plucked the piece of paper from the basket and started to read. In the nursery light, she could make out the stains of tears.

* * *

_Adora,_

_I’m sorry to dump this responsibility on you and Sparkles. It’s selfish of me, I know, but why break the habit of a lifetime?_

_As you’ve probably guessed by now, this is my daughter. Not from any serious romance, I’m not ready for that yet – you know that as well as I do. Horde sex ed sure was something, huh?_

_I can’t do this, Adora. I can’t be responsible for a child, not yet. I’m not ready. I’m getting better, but I’m still not safe for me, let alone a daughter. I love her, but every time I see her, I have the nightmares again. I want to give her the best chance at life…and I don’t think that her best chance is with me._

_I’m sorry. You guys are gonna be great parents, I know it. I’m just gonna have to ask you to be great parents to three kids, instead of two._

_Her name is Tigara. Be good to her. I’ll come and visit her, sometime. When I’m sure I’m not going to hurt her somehow._

_\- C._

* * *

The nightmares.

During their brief relationship, Catra had been haunted by dreams about Shadow Weaver. Not the old witch’s death, but of Catra turning into her, or being subsumed by some aspect of her, or something. Often, she’d recall some moment from their time as enemies, but she’d be replaced with Shadow Weaver while Adora’s role was filled by a much younger Catra – the electrocution attempt in Elberon was the most common, but the Crystal Castle betrayal and the incident with the First One virus also featured prominently.

At first, she’d been afraid that some aspect of Shadow Weaver was literally trying to take her over and possess her, but in time, they’d figured out that it was more metaphorical – her mind hitting her with her fears of going back to being like their “caretaker”.

And then they’d broken up. It had been Catra’s decision, but in retrospect, it had been the right one. Glimmer and Bow had long since realised they’d just been caught up in the emotions of the moment, and things had just…evolved from there. And now Catra was, at least in theory, in the Crimson Wastes, finding herself, and Adora was here in Brightmoon with a beautiful wife and two adorable, noisy babies.

Possibly three adorable, noisy babies, now.

Adora picked up the basket and headed for the bedroom.

“Glimmer? We, uh. We need to talk about this.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I want to quickly address the elephant in the room, with regard to That Stream:
> 
> I still like [looks at the still-burning wreckage of season 5] _most_ of the show. Does it have issues, _yes_. Are some of those issues caused by a lack of both diversity and inclusion behind the scenes, _yes_. But no media is ideologically pure and no creative team is going to be perfect. If you're so disappointed by the events of the stream that you can't engage with the media further, then that's entirely fair, but I think it is important to remember that we should engage with all media with a nuanced understanding that it isn't going to be The Perfect Show Descending From Heaven To Save The World. Everything is going to be a product of the society it's made in, and it's going to inherit strengths and flaws from that - something might have a lot of LGBT rep but have issues with race or disability, or a show might have a lot of writers of colour but also display pervasive homophobia or transphobia, and it's up to the individual viewer how tolerant they are of a given failing.
> 
> Basically, I don't intend to stop writing fanfiction for this show, because I think these characters deserve better than they got, but I can absolutely understand if you disagree.
> 
> This is an awful lot of stuff to unpack in the context of a short fic about babies but under the circumstances I thought it was important.
> 
> Anyway, for more immediately relevant stuff, Adora and Glimmer do indeed raise Tigara as their ward and they do their very best to make it clear that just because she isn't related by blood to either of them that doesn't mean she isn't family.


End file.
